On October 6, 2023, the Edmonson County Water District received a notice of violation stating that we fell below an additional specified level of treatment to address Cryptosporidium in the month of July. There is an additional level of treatment that is required. The additional requirement was to have continuous turbidity monitor recorders to record all filters individually. The Brownsville Plant has always maintained continuous recording monitors on all filters but in July the recording monitor for each individual filter was not functioning properly. The equipment was quickly repaired to remedy the problem. The Water District has always maintained continuous monitoring and recording as required on the combined filter turbidity at the Wax Plant but was not required to record the readings of each individual filter prior to July 2023. Because of the recently implemented rule changes, the Water District was notified that the Wax water plant was in violation because there were no individual filter recorders in use. After being made aware of the rule change, the Edmonson County Water District did purchase and install recording equipment before the end of September to remedy any future violations that may be observed by the Division of Water. The filter recorders were not put online until September, which will cause the Wax plant to receive the same type of violation for August and September.
The Water District mailed out a Public Notice to all customers on October 31, 2023. The EPA requires mandatory language in the Public Notice. We are posting this memo to inform our customers of the specifics of this incident.
The Kentucky Division of Water routinely runs its compliance checks monthly. Because of this, a water system could violate a particular parameter and not be notified until two months later due to discovery violation and mailing of notifications.
As stated in the public notice there is no need to boil your water. If there is an immediate concern with the quality of water, the Edmonson County Water District will notify our customers of any potential problems and what to do.
A BOIL WATER ADVISORY is a protocol set by the Kentucky Division of Water that states that because a system has lost pressure such as a main line break the water line has the potential to siphon or draw in groundwater. To ensure the safety of the water it is recommended that the water be boiled for at least 3 minutes before consumption until water samples are collected and sampled for bacteria before returning to normal use. THIS IS MANDATED BY THE KY DIVISION OF WATER every time there is a main break, and a loss of pressure occurs.